F °Pi d ants vesti g ators report enough to last for several centuries 



yet. 



18 Of interest in connection with the report of a new 



process for the cheap commercial extraction of Nitrogen 

 from the air, for use in making fertilizers, is a recent 

 (Chilean) government report on the Chilean Nitrate 

 beds. It is estimated that the state still possesses 

 nearly 5,000,000 acres of Nitrate grounds, which con- 

 tain about 1,000,000,000,000 pounds of Nitrate. Tak- 

 ing half this figure as the total available supply, and 

 assuming an annual export of 8,000,000,000 pounds, 

 which is more than twice the amount ever sent out of 

 the country in any one year, it would require upwards 

 of 125 years to exhaust the beds. If to these govern- 

 ment beds there be added those belonging to private 

 persons, the final exhaustion of the supply will not be 

 for another two or three hundred years. The reported 

 imminency of the failure of the Chile beds has been one 

 of the reasons urged for the development of an artificial 

 process of manufacture, up to this time a failure com- 

 mercially. 



So many sensational statements have been made 

 of late which would lead one to suppose that the ex- 

 haustion of the supplies of Chilean Nitrate is imminent, 

 that I am asking you to help dissipate the prevailing- 

 opinion that very little Nitrate of Soda is now left in 

 Chile for fertilizer or other purposes. 



First of all, there is a vast amount of unsurveyed 

 Nitrate ground on the Chilean pampas that is, never- 

 theless, known to contain immense quantities of 

 Nitrate of Soda. 



Second, grounds already surveyed still contain 

 enormous quantities of Nitrate. There are probably, 

 in round numbers, one billion tons of Nitrate in the de- 

 posits of Chile, and, without doubt, large supplies 

 also exist on lands now but incompletely prospected. 

 The surveyed and certified tonnage opened up at the 

 present time ready for extracting is fully 250,000,000 

 tons. 



The probable life of the surveyed deposits is up- 

 wards of 200 years, even allowing for a steadily in- 

 creasing annual rate of consumption. 



